Yield performance of oat cultivars in response to sowing dates and densities

Adjustment of seeding density oriented by genotype and conditions of the growing environment may favor growth, development and yield performance of the oat crop. This study aimed to evaluate the growth, lodging, yield components, and grain yield of oat cultivars grown at different sowing dates and densities. Two independent experiments were conducted at two sowing dates (May 5 and June 24) in Londrina-PR under a randomized block design in a 4 × 2 factorial scheme, with four replications. Treatments consisted of four sowing densities (180, 240, 300, and 360 viable seeds m−2) and two cultivars (IPR Afrodite and IPR Artemis). Plant height, number of panicles.m−2, number of spikelets per panicle, number of grains per spikelet, number of grains per panicle, thousand-grain weight, plant lodging, and grain yield were evaluated. The data were submitted to the analysis of joint variance for sowing dates, separately for the cultivars. The averages of sowing dates were compared by the F test and densities submitted to polynomial regression analysis up to 2nd degree, at 5% probability. The first sowing date favors most yield components and grain yield of the cultivars IPR Afrodite and IPR Artemis. In contrast, the number of panicles m−2 was reduced during this growing season for both cultivars. The late sowing date for the IPR Artemis cultivar resulted in a high percentage of lodging at all evaluated densities. However, this phenomenon is more intense at higher sowing densities during the first sowing date. Yield components and grain yield varied according to sowing dates and densities and the cultivar. The highest grain yield of the cultivar IPR Afrodite at the first sowing date was achieved with a lower sowing density than in the later date. However, the highest grain yield of the IPR Artemis cultivar was achieved at density of 280 viable seeds m−2, regardless of the growing season.